Declaration of Interest

I moved home myself this weekend – Man it’s a tiring day isn’t it! There’s bits of me aching this morning I didn’t realise had a function. As usual at such times Team Imagine were in full support mode and Tom especially comes in to his own on  such occasions. He took off then re-hung doors, un plugged then set back up the surround sound, dismantled a couple of beds then re-erected them at the new place and still found time to take his missus for a Sunday Roast. Legend status secure.

The moving process reminded me of a popular misconception that as an Estate Agent you must pick up the best house buys and profit accordingly. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but I can tell you the agent wouldn’t have to break the law and be highly unethical to do it in most cases. You see at any point an agent is interested in buying a property from the business in which they work or from one they have a relationship with, they have to declare their interest to the other party, prior to offering. The law also applies to declaring purchases from relatives who an individual may try to use to shield their involvement. In my experience, whenever I have told a vendor of mine I would like to buy their house they immediately think it must be cheap and the price goes up so it’s a fairly pointless exercise which is why on occasions there are those who have been less than up front about their intentions.

For me the very worst thing you can do as an agent is look to profit further from a client already prepared to pay you a fee for selling their home. It really is the lowest of the low, but as in all walks of life there are those who will stoop to any level to deepen their own pockets. There have been some high profile cases that resulted in individuals being banned from the industry or losing their businesses as a result of personal greed getting the better of them. As such The Declaration of Interest Law is essential in giving the public confidence that there is recourse if ever there is a failing of this type. The punishments are severe enough to put off all but the most devious, so thank fully cases are few and far between these days.